The Jefferson Federation of Teachers has issued a scathing report on the public school system's new "interval testing" program, with an overwhelming majority of teachers calling it a waste of time.

In a survey during the 2006-07 school year, 74 percent of teachers said the program -- designed to improve scores on Louisiana's high-stakes standardized tests -- is useless and that the paperwork eats up their instructional and planning time.

"What a misuse of valuable time," one teacher said in the survey, which did not identify respondents by name. "It's no wonder there is such a teacher shortage. The paperwork is driving all of the good teachers away."

"Too much testing. Not enough teaching," said another teacher. "Teachers just have time to teach the test and nothing else. That is not education."

The teachers union submitted the survey to the Jefferson Parish School Board as part of a comprehensive evaluation of the program, also called "chunk" testing. School officials say they recognize the problems and are working to solve them in time for the next series of tests in September.

The school system launched the $150,000-a-year program last year as a way to boost the system's stagnant test scores. At the time, Jefferson ranked 53rd out of 68 public school systems in Louisiana, with the parish's top-performing high school, Grace King in Metairie, ranking 72nd out of 198 public high schools, according to state figures.

Developed by the Hot Springs (Ark.) School District, interval assessment is designed to help teachers identify weaknesses, provide remediation and improve instruction so that students in grades 2 through 10 are adequately prepared for the spring LEAP and i-LEAP testing, which is used to rank schools in Lousiana. Under the program, teachers give interval tests eight times a year. Through a computerized reporting system, they are supposed to get almost immediate feedback on what children know and don't know based on Louisiana's grade-level expectations.

But the program did not work as intended, teachers union president Joe Potts said Thursday. Teachers lodged dozens of complaints, among them poorly organized distribution of testing materials, too much testing, poorly written tests and a loss of instructional time.

"We don't know where the breakdown was, and we don't care. We just want it fixed," Potts said. "I'm hopeful that they (school officials) will be able to work out the kinks."

Potts said he has already met with Deputy Superintendent Richard Carpenter to discuss the problems, and he has been assured that the program will be modified to include many of the changes that teachers are requesting, such as fewer and shorter tests.

"We think there is some merit to interval testing, just not to the frequency of the past school year," Potts said.

Carpenter could not be reached for comment Thursday, but Karen Herndon, the school system's director of accountability, said that beginning in the 2007-08 academic year interval tests will have 15 questions instead of 20, and there will be six testing periods instead of eight. The school system will also have an interval assessment technician on board to assist in printing, scanning and distributing the tests.

Herndon said she was not surprised by the largely negative comments of teachers, given that the program was operating on a pilot basis. She said that even before she received the union's report, she solicited comments from teachers and principals.

"It was our initiation year, so we accepted comments from everybody, and we took that into consideration," she said.

While she said she is sympathetic to the challenges that teachers faced as they adjusted to the program, she said they and their students will benefit in the long run.

"You're changing teaching habits, and that's something you can't change overnight," she said. "Our goal this year is to find out the areas of deficiency and link them into staff development for the teachers and remediation for the students."

The union submitted its report to the School Board last week, and some board members were clearly irritated by what they read. Among them was Ray St. Pierre, who along with board President Etta Licciardi and school officials learned about interval assessment four years ago while attending a workshop in Arizona. They brought the program home, convinced that that it was the answer to raising test scores.

"When I start reading through these types of things, it bothers me," St. Pierre said of the union's report. "We've got to do better. I know it can work. It is working in other places, and I know it can work in Jefferson Parish. (Otherwise) we can't be sure that teachers are teaching like they should or that children are learning like they should."

Whether interval testing had much effect on the 2006-07 standardized test scores is difficult to say. Jefferson and other school systems affected by Hurricane Katrina were allowed to start from scratch in the state's accountability program. Still, the most recent scores were dismal, with schools in Jefferson trailing the state across the board.

Officials said it takes two years of statistics to tabulate a baseline performance score, which means schools starting anew will not receive their first post-storm performance score until the fall of 2008. A performance score combines standardized test scores with attendance and drop-out rates.

Barri Bronston can be reached at bbronston@timespicayune.com or (504) 883-7058.